Damien Martinez stakes his claim to replace Mannone in Arsenal goal

The young Argentinian keeper Damien Martinez was given his chance to impress Arsene Wenger in the 6-1 drubbing of Coventry in the Capital One Cup, and due to the ongoing injuries to both Wojciech Szczesny and Lukas Fabianski he has been promoted to the bench for the Arsenal first-team games.

Mannone has been okay so far and kept a couple of clean sheets, but looked a little out of his depth against Chelsea yesterday, and Martinez has taken the opportunity to stake his claim for a chance to show his skills on the biggest stage.

The 20 year-old said when asked if he was aiming for a first-team place: “I am working for that. They played me and I responded well, so they know they can rely on me.

“Arsene is very professional, and is very helpful. He treats the best player and the 17-year-old lad the same way. And he has the same demands. And if he has to play the kid that is better than the veteran, he will.”

I personally didn’t see the game against Coventry, but did anyone who watched it think he is good enough to replace Mannone in Arsenal’s goal?

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since Jenz, all our keepers r so bad in crosses, stuck @ the 6 yards …. much of our fears from crosses & set pieces could be easily cleared if we have a confident mind & firm hands between 3 posts …. something more i would like 2 share with u guys …. did anyone related our set piece failure to Koscielny ?? … don’t get me wrong … he is tough & smart …. but why didn’t we feel that mess on set pieces when Mertesacker was there ??

all of a sudden 1 mistake and mannone’s rubbish? i think it’s kinda familiar before this….hmmmm, oh wait, it was with szczesny! serves some of you lot right for easily putting players on pedestals after 1 good performance. pfft.

@ Admin – I have seen him, he is one of those ‘ u can rely one me’ type players …. I’ve seen his pre-seaon matches and his performence for the reserves and against Coventry – mark my words – one day he is gonna be ARSENAL’S NO. 1. …. not any1 gets a call for the ARGENTINE NATIONAL (not he u-21) for nothing u know ….

He has lightning quick reflexes, a good height and his dives are TOTALLY out strected (remember Sczcesny against Liverpool pen ????) …. He deserves a first team chance against West Ham or Norwich (But hey, that’s only MY opinion) 😀 COYG 😀

manonne looks like a good keeper but he is weak at crosses,he flapped at a few in the liverpool game,didnt come for it properly against city,didnt come for it against chelsea twice and most of these mistakes resulted in goals,so i think thats obvious,he looks a bit short compared to other keepers

Looks like I might have to eat my earlier words about Mannone coming good. Truth is, he hasn’t been good enough the last two games. Since he missed that cross which resulted in Man City’s goal last week, he seems too scared to come out for the ball. That’s why he just stood there watching yesterday the free-kicks and was too late to react when they went in. Very disappointing.

@the doctor…it wasn’t 1 mistake. Mannone was at fault for the goal we conceded at etihad,and was at fault for the second goal against chelsea!
He has looked shaky everytime we have had to deal with crosses and cnt understand why people praised him to begin with,what he did was what any keeper would do,block afew shots!

GK should not be only good in technical skill himself but should also be able to organise defenders to mark opponents and cover any gaps. In this area, Sczezny is doing pretty well. Manone or Damien may just leave it to defenders what they want to do. They need to improve in this.

I have a problem with the tactics and formation more than the goalie, yes he’s made some errors but why change a winning team/formula for a big match. Mertersacker should have been playing and so should Giroud. The extra height from these two players in the box is a massive plus, not to mention there was nobody in the appoints box to cross to. Also, this fued with Walcott is becoming detrimental to the team if you ask me.

I have the feeling Arsene is still working on his starting eleven
@the end of it all I see sczchezny keeping his place and per leading the back four, he has this calmness and organisational ability with so much presence in the area
Then I want to make a case for Girouid this guy needs playing time, these last 15 or 20mins play won’t mould him into that striker we so much need

lets not forget the guy recorded three clean sheet befor man city game, the issues is that the defends only luks very flat footed at set peices that is the area steve bud nd arsen w shld wrk more in all gud performance bt lack strong power upfront to ova wrk opponents defends nd kip dem at their bck finaly wenger shld give giroud starting place

craig2500, i don’t think these are blames, we are all passionate arsenal supporters, if not who would want to spend precious time trying to figure out what went wrong, u think we would bother to discuss about manure, manshitty or chelsisky?

I haven’t seen enough of Martinez to judge, but I’ve always been unsure of Mannone. IMO I still think the big Pole is most reliable and sure of himself. Fair enough some might say he’s arrogant or over-confident, maybe he thinks he’s better than he really is, but I still rate him as our best keeper compared to Flappy and Mannone.

Szczesny is vocal and I think this is very important from a keeper. He has to let his defenders know where they should be & communication is key to a successful team. I still believe he doesn’t have the commanding respect that he wants, due to his slight immaturity and up-in-your-face approach. He needs to work on his delivery of instructive directives. Every good leader goes through this process.

You must have watcvhed a diffrent game. Mannone did nothing wrong in the match against chelsea. It is very obvious and simple kossielny gifted chelsea two goals. Would u blame mannone for an own goal which he knows nothing about and was no where near the ball? Our defenders were rubbish in chelsea match. Both vermerlean n kossielny were busy running forward and leaving every where open. Arsene wenger sacrifised possession of the ball when he substituted aron ramsey. This has shown us the importance of mertesacker and the fact that he is alwaya focused on defending rather running off to go and score

Mannone is inexperienced..the only reason people rate him was because of the ‘clean sheet’ we kept the first few games. THATS BECAUSE ARSENAL DOMINATED POSSESSION AGAINST STOKE, SUNDERLAND AND LIVERFOOL, not because Mannone was brilliant. He struggles with air balls. Szczesny must be brought back to NO 1. Ramsey is another suspect player. He had one good game so far this season compared to all the terrible games last season including a SHOCKER against Chelsea now on Saturday, and people still think he is good enough. I CAN’T WAIT FOR WILSHERE TO REPLACE HIM. Ramsey is too inconsistent and cannot seem to play well in the big games when we need an AM/Winger the most. Last but definitely not least…Vermalaen and Kossie do not gel together very well. They are too similar and I feel Mertesacker paired with anyone of them is a more solid, composed defense.

Gibbs and Jenks have been absolutely brilliant.

I agree with one thing in this post is that our midfielders need to know how Giroud thinks and plays. He makes exceptional runs and creates scoring opportunities.

We played very well against Chelsea…I mean that goal from Torres wasn’t a great goal, it boiled down to shitty defending. Kossie was more focused on looking at Torres than the freaking ball. Not bashing him, he has been a great defender…I just feel with Szczes in goals, things would be more orderly at the back. With Mannone it doesn’t seem to be that way. We let in two goals against Chelsea that were purely because of terrible defensive positioning and awareness.

Otherwise our team looks good and I feel we still have a good chance to win something this season. I am so happy United lost.

i thought that the first goal was all Koscielny(1)it was an easy clearance and(2)you should never turn your back on the ball,second che goal i think szczesny would definitely have saved that all day long,i think that Giroud and Koscielny should take up meditation or yoga or something coz at times they are much too rash and a bit too jingly jangly,i have to say that i have never believed Manone to be a competent goalkeeper but it did’nt me worry much as i never really expect the keeper to get injured,also i cant help thinking that if we had a Peter Schmeichel type in goal that he would sort out all of our set play problems,in my opinion Szczesny may become this keeper with a little more maturity and bravery but i will still worry as long as there is a chance of Manone or Fabianski getting a run in the first team.

Every game we have not played Mert has been very shaky at the back for us. If it wasn’t for him we would have conceded at Anfiled esp from that young Rahem kid. Against City he kept using his long legs to just push the back away from the strikers just when the get dangerous.
Unfortunately I keep hearing here about how he is too slow against fast strikers and top sides. Well he did well against Liverpool and Chelsea, against Stoke and Sunderland. So then tell me what better side than City we got in UK in view of attacking football. We all know how dangerous stoke can be but he kept them quiet. We need Mert and Verm to be first choice. Mert reads the game as no man’s business. He is not Usain Bolt but there is a reason he’s had a great impact in the German side. Kos who am a big fan of has made some very bad mistakes that have caused loads. Use Mert instead till he find himself

Whether the goals we ‘ve conceded so far are Mannone’s fault or not,he just doesn’t look a quality goalkeeper,he is not sure of himself,also indecisive,he kicks the ball out of play most of the times.Szczesny is our main man,even Fabianski has done well after his flopianski period was over.Fabianski was unlucky that his injury coincided with that of Szczesny.Mannone is decent goalkeeper for a championship side but not for the likes of arsenal.Martinez is more certain of himself than Mannone.

the blame if any should be towards how we gave the free kick away. Vermalen failed needlessly and Mananone clearly didnt have the goal covered which caused koshieny to go for it. Combination of errors including AW playing diaby knowing he was a gamble then not playing Mertsacker for height reasons if he had to come off.